Michigan right-to-work battle spills over to new year

If anyone things that the debate over Michigan's new status as a right-to-work state is over, guess again.

Democrats and Republicans are rallying their troops for expected challenges, and defenses, of the new law passed in the lame duck legislative session in December by the Republican-controlled Legislature and hastily signed by GOP Gov. Rick Snyder.

o Snyder has asked the Michigan Supreme Court for an advisory ruling on the constitutionality of the new law as it applies to public employees. By seeking an advisory opinion from the Michigan Supreme Court, Snyder hopes to avoid legal challenges to the right-to-work law that takes effect at the end of March.

o And a union for university professors at Western Michigan University have asked for a nine-year extension of their contract in a move that right-to-work supporters say is a move to circumvent the new law because it would require union members to pay union dues or fees until 2023.

Right-to-work means an employee can't be required to pay union dues or fees, or join a union, as a condition of employment.

Democrats and labor unions vowed to keep opposing right-to-work after it was passed in December amid protests of thousands outside the Capitol Building.

Democrats have mentioned legal challenges to the new law, a possible ballot initiative to repeal it, and stepped up efforts to unseat Republicans as possible strategies in the run-up to the 2014 election in which the governor, all 110 members of the state House and all 38 state senators are on the ballot.

As the title of the event suggests, Republicans are holding Thursday's forum in Troy to separate what they say is facts and myth about right-to-work.

The panel is decidedly conservative and Republican.

The panel includes state Sen. Patrick Colbeck, a Canton Republican, state Rep. Mike Shirkey, a Clarklake Republican, Terry Bowman, a union member and founder of Union Conservatives, and former conservative state lawmaker Jack Hoogendyk, a member of the Freedom to Work coalition.

The forum is at 7 p.m. Thursday in Room 305 at the Troy Community Center, 3179 Livernois Road.

Contact Charles Crumm at 248-745-4649, charlie.crumm@oakpress.com or follow him on Twitter @crummc and on Facebook. More information is at oaklandmichiganpolitics.blogspot.com. Keep up with the latest in local news by texting OPNews to 22700. Msg & Data Rates May Apply. Text HELP for help. Text STOP to cancel.